Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
What games are you going to play?
As of now, almost all games coming out are either S.M 3.0 or OpenGL titles based on the doom3 engine.
This means that A) the X850XT would be 'able' to play some of the S.M 3.0 games using S.M 1.1 or 2.0 path which would result in worse IQ. B) the NV cards will perform much better on OpenGL titles espeically as quake wars/prey are both OpenGL AND based on the doom3 engine.
C) It might not even be playable on S.M 3.0 games which lack fall back shaders.
The 7600GT outperforms the 6800GS most of the time even with its 128bit memory interface. (Although its clocked at 700(1400)mhz GDDR3 which gives the 7600GT plenty of bandwidth). The X850XT would outperform the 7600GT and the 6800GS.
However, we have to note is that do you want to use HDR? How about trasnsparcey AA? Or pure video?
I would go for a 7600GT as of now. The transistion to S.M 3.0 is in full effect. Onething to note is how the 7600GT consumes same amount of power of a 6600GT while performing twice as fast.
? The Doom 3 engine has been pretty unpopular as far as engines go.
There's
Doom 3
Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil expansion
Quake 4(made by raven who has a longstanding relationship with ID, and is actually considered a secondary part of id. They have used id ttechnology since their 2nd game.)
Prey
Coming out are
Enemy Territory Quake Wars(id game)
A sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein(another id game)
and a new game by id as yet unnamed.
so essentially the only 3rd party guys ot use the doo 3 engine are human head studios/3d realms.
On the other hande, the Half Life Source engine has found more popularity
of course there are the half life games
Counter-Strike: Source
Day of Defeat: Source
Half-Life: Source
Half-Life: Source Deathmatch
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Episode One(aftermath expansion)
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
Team Fortress 2(unrelased, been working on it forever)
Then theres
Alien Swarm: Infested
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
Realms of Valhallon: Age of Nations
SiN Episodes
They Hunger: Lost Souls
Twilight War: After the Fall (production resumed)
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Unannounced Warren Spector game
The Doom 3 engine never realyl took off since it is just not a very good engine. Valve's source works on 90% more hardware, runs faster, looks just as good, Can do HDR and AA with SM2, can put more enemies onscreen and handles higher poly models without slowing down.
Opengl is nvidia's game(except for the x1900s and x1800s in which ati is just as fast) but opengl is dying. SM3 is important but dont bring Doom3 into this. It is not a popular engine and never will be since it is so horribly programed. They decided to push technological boundaries instead of making a decent engine that would make a fun game. ID and Doom 3 engine = :thumbsdown:
as i said though, a 7600gt for lower resolutions due to a memory bandwith problem at higher resolutions and a x850xt at higher resolutions.